Strong Second Half leads Racers To 74-66 Win At Southeast Missouri

Saturday, January 5

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

5 p.m.

Murray State

11-3, 2-0OVC

Southeast Missouri

10-7, 2-1OVC

Murray State

Southeast Missouri

Photo by: Tab Brockman

Strong Second Half leads Racers To 74-66 Win At Southeast Missouri

1/5/2013 5:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score I Box Score(PDF)

The Murray State Racers scored a come-from-behind 74-66 win Saturday at Southeast Missouri State in the Show Me center in Cape Girardeau.

MSU (11-3, 2-0) erased a 44-32 deficit with 16:00 remaining to grab their first lead of the day with 10:33 left. MSU's 20-8 run was the decisive blow to move to 2-0 in the early OVC race.

Isaiah Canaan scored 23 of his 28 points in the second half, while Ed Daniel hauled in 17 rebounds to go with 15 points and Stacy Wilson tossed in 14 points to lead the Racers to back-to-back road wins to start the OVC season.

Trailing 49-39 with 14:08 remaining, the three-time defending Ohio Valley Conference champs dug deep to get back into the game with a big run. Canaan hit his first two threes of the day to cut the SEMO lead to four and Wilson followed with another three and the Racers were down 49-48 with 12:11 remaining.

Again the Racers were down by four with 12:05 remaining when Canaan hit another three and Daniel went to the line and tied it at 52-52 with 11:20 left. MSU took its first lead of the day when Wilson found Daniel inside and MSU led 54-52 with 10:33 remaining, it was a lead MSU never gave back.

Another Canaan three and MSU had its largest lead of the day of six at 58-52 with 6:52 left. MSU held SEMO from the 12:05 mark to the 6:33 mark with no points and made a 10-0 run of it. With 1:36 remaining, SEMO (10-7, 2-1) had a chance to tie but Tyler Stone's three was no good. MSU made 9-of-10 from the free throw line to bring home the win.

MSU won the rebound battle 43-29 with Daniel pulling down an amazing 10 offensive boards.

The Racers play their OVC opener Wednesday at 7 p.m. when the Eastern Kentucky Colonels visit the CFSB Center.

Game Notes
The Racers now lead the series with SEMO 51-17 and are 26-8 in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

After giving up 10 turnovers in the first half, the Racers steadied the ship with only three in the second half.

The Racers won the rebound battle 43-29 to mark their largest rebound margin this season against an NCAA D-I team.

Isaiah Canaan became the all-time leader in made three-point baskets when he hit his first of the day at the 13:39 mark of the second half. Canaan surpassed the record of Frank Allen who played for the Racers from 1989-93 and hit 251. Canaan hit three threes today and now has 254 for his Racer career.

Canaan's school-record for consecutive games with a made three-point basket is now at 24.

Canaan was 3-of-4 in the second half from three-point range after going 0-4 in the first half.

Daniel's 17 rebounds was 1 shy of his career-high of 18 earlier this season at Lipscomb (Nov.26). Daniel's 10 offensive rebounds means he now has 63 after having 70 in the 2011-12 season.

The Racers are 42-5 in the Steve Prohm era.

The Racers welcome EKU into The Bank on Wednesday. MSU leads the all-time series with the Colonels 94-59 and are 52-21 at home. MSU has won the last seven games in the series since an EKU win in Richmond, Ky., in 2008.